Suction nozzle for vacuum cleaners



June 5, 1945. V L K I 2,377,778

SUCTION NOZZLE FOR VACUUM CLEANERS Fil ed March 28, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet1 June 5, 1945. hv R. HALLQCK 2,377,778

SUCTION NOZZLE FOR VACUUM CLEANERS Filed March 28, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2fax WW Patented June 5, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,377,778SUCTION NOZZLE FOR VACUUM CLEANERS Robert Lay Hallock, Larchmont, N. Y.Application March 28, 1942, Serial No. 436,600

face contacting member, looking at it from be- 4 Claims.

My invention relates to suction nozzles for vacuum cleaners and moreparticularly to suction nozzles for vacuum cleaners of the kindessentially employing suction alone, as distinguished from thoseemploying power-driven agitators combined with suction.

All electric vacuum cleaners rely on suction as a factor in cleaning.While a strong suction alone is generally adequate for removingparticles of dirt, it is not as expeditious as a combination of beating,brushing, and suction for removing lint and the hair of cats, dogs, andother pets from certain carpets and rugs. However, beating isdestructive to rugs, and bristle brushes are undesirable in that theyaccumulate lint, threads, cotton, etc. a

It is an object of my invention to provide a surface contacting devicefor effectively removing surface litter, especially very fine lint,hair, fibres, etc., preferably in co-operation with strong suctionadequate to remove imbedded dirt and dust and to pick up debrisagglomerated by the action of my improved device.

I might first generally describe the surface contacting member ofmyinvention as including a series of teeth alternating withpile-depressing surfaces which are extended forwardly of the teeth andare provided with narrow inlets to spaces or bays around the teeth, theteeth being pointed both laterally and vertically. A characteristic ofmy improved device is that the piledepressing surfaces create a wave-likmotion of the carpet pile to spread the pile at the places of contactwith the teeth. and relieve pressure of the pile against the teeth,while co-operatingwith the teeth to weave'or hook hairs and lint ontothe teeth on the forward stroke of the nozzle to detach them fromadhesion to the pile and agglomerating them, the agglomerated litterbeing sucked into the suction stream on the backward stroke of thenozzle.

The invention will be more readily understood from the followingdescription of a preferred form. taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, forming a part of specification, of which:

Fig. 1 is a front view partly in section of a vacuum cleaner nozzleemploying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the nozzle;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged bottom view of part of the surfacecontacting'member;

' Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken on line 4-4 of F18. 1;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a part of the surlow; a

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a part of the surface-contacting memberlooking at it from above; Fig. ,7 is a cross-sectional view of thesurface contacting member in a semi-finished state; and Fig. 8 is across-sectional view of the surface contacting member showing its actionagainst a rug.

In the accompanying drawings, reference character I 0 designatesgenerally a suction nozzle adapted to be connected to a tube and hoseand a I cleaner unit having the usual motor-driven fan and dustseparator. In operation, the cleaner unit is stationary, while theoperator moves the nozzle attached to the suction tube with forward andbackward strokes on the carpet or rug. The

I prefer that lowermost point nozzle is preferably long transversely tothe direction of movement and narrow in the direction of movement, as isgeneral in such nozzles. In Fig. 4, the arrow marked F indicates thedirection of the forward stroke and the arrow marked B designates thebackward stroke. The nozzle has an internal passage ll open at thebottom where the gliding surface I2 contacts the carpet. Passage Htapers upwardly to the connection to the tube.

The forward wall 13 of the nozzle may be formed with a narrow lip [4adjacent the suction opening and extending the full length thereof. Thislip may be termed a sealing lip.

Extending along the rear wall i5 of the nozzle and preferably for.substantially the full length thereof is my improved surface contactingmember i6. Member It may be'attached to the main body of the nozzle asby welding, rivets, or drivescrews, indicated at H. The member ispreferably madeof a'very thin strip of stainless steel or other durable,non-corrosive material. Preferably it is made of hard steel to'resistabrasion. The member preferably projects forwardly somewhat beyond theback wall iii of the suction passage I i into the suction passage and iscurved convexly with reference to the pile to provide a lip ii! at therear wall of the suction opening corresponding to the forward lip l4, sofar as concerns the sealing function. In this lip l9 are apertures 20 socut or punched as to form teeth 2| which are essentially horizontal andat the of curvature of the lip and which point forwardly toward thesuction openmg Apertures 20 may be closed or open at the front edge ofthe surface contacting member but they be closed in order to afford ofthe apertures should be higher than the teeth and at this front part,each aperture is preferably narrow, so that wide pile-depressingsurfaces (width indicated at 22 in Fig. 6) are provided between adjacentapertures. Farther back the apertures or bays are wide so as to leaverelatively large spaces laterally of the teeth to afford opportunity forthe teeth to, so to speak, thread themselves under hairs or fibers whichare held more remotely by the intermediate piledepressing surfaces.

The more teeth per inch, and the narrower the aperture at their forwardparts, the better the fiber picking action. As an example, the surfacecontacting member may be made of stainless steel of a thickness of tenthousandths of an inch, the apertures may be ten thousandths of an inchwide at their forward portions and have a maximum width of fortythousandths of an inch. I prefer to have twelve or more teeth to theinch.

The teeth 2| are pointed vertically as well as horizontally. This may beaccomplished as shown in Fig. '7. Reference characters 35 and 38represent die blocks between which the surface contacting member isformed in a press after the apertures 20 have been punched out while thestock is in the flat. Die block 36 has a groove 31 running lengthwise ofthe surface contacting member below the projections which are to becometeeth 2|. The die blocks are formed to give the indicated curvature tothe member except for the relief provided by groove 31.. This results inthe teeth portions remaining straight and, in effect, entering groove 31so as to constitute projections 2 la extending below the general convexultimate lower surface of the surface contacting member. The member isthen removed from the forming dies 35 and 36 and a grinding operation isapplied to remove so much of the projection 2|a as is below the generalbottom surface; that is, to the dotted line in Fig. 7, so that the tooth2| is formed as shown in Fig. 8.

I have tried to depict the action of the surface contacting memberagainst a rug in Fig. 8. The rug 30 is of the ordinary pile type. Thenozzle is pulled against the rug by the suction imposed by the fan. Whenthe operator moves the nozzle to the right, the forward part of thesurface contacting member pushes the top part of the pile forwardly; andI have found that due to the connection of the pile tufts to thebacking, the forward displacement of the pile causes a pull or inducedforward movement of pile nearer the teeth so that the teeth 2| can berelatively sharp and yet not cut or injure the pile because there is agreat spread of pile strands where the teeth 2| are. This is in part dueto the narrowness of apertures 20. A pile tuft may be much thicker thanthe width of the aperture so that the forward bearing surfaces of thesurface contacting member move the whole pile tuft forward. At the sametime the bearing surfaces tend to hold loose fibers while leaving themloose within apertures 20. In Fig. 8, 3| indicates a fiber. Most fibersare irregular as indicated. Thus the fibers are caught by and threadedonto the points 2|. Also as some fibers are caught, these seem to assistin the catching of others. The suction bein a 2,377,778 rigidity to themember. However, the front parts forward of the surface contactingmember, when the nozzle is reversed and moved backwards, the

fibers slip off the teeth and are pulled into the suction stream. Thusalthough the teeth 2| are tapered both vertically and laterally topoints, they do not injure the rug. My improved device is especiallydesigned to pick up fibers of such small size as constitute the fibercomponents of an ordinary thread or the small fibers in medical cottonor threads or hairs of a size below three thousandths of an inch indiameter or thickness.

It will be obvious that various changes in structure may be made withinthe scope of the invention. For example, the surface contacting membermay be formed in a cylindrical tube or a sheet wrapped into tube shapearound a supporting rod.

What I claim is:

1. A surface contacting member for a suction cleaner nozzle comprisingan elongated relatively narrow element of thin strip material havingsmall spaced apertures in its surface, certain of said apertures havinga pointed tooth therein, the lower surface and point of each tooth beinglocated substantially in the contacting surface of said member, theupper'and side surfaces of each tooth being inclined and convergingtoward said point.

2. A surface contacting member for a suction cleaner nozzle comprisingan elongated relatively narrow element of thin strip material havingsmall spaced apertures in its surface, certain of said apertures havinga pointed tooth therein, the lower surface and point of each tooth beinglocated substantially in the contacting surface of said member, saidapertures providing spaces on either side of each tooth and above thepointed end of the tooth, the width of said spaces on either side beingsufficiently small to prevent a thread of a rug from entering the spaceabove the tooth, while being sufficiently large to permit entrance of athread fiber, the upper and side surfaces of each tooth being inclinedand converging toward said point.

3. A surface contacting member for a suction cleaner nozzle comprisingan elongated relatively narrow element of thin strip material havingsmall spaced apertures in its surface, certain of said apertures havinga pointed tooth therein with its lower surface conforming in contour tothe bottom surface of said surface contacting member and with the upperand side surfaces of each tooth inclined and converging toward saidpoint, and the point of each tooth being located substantially in saidbottom surface.

4. A suction cleaner nozzle having a surface contacting membercomprising an elongated relatively narrow element of thin strip materialhaving small spaced aperture in its surface, certain of said apertureshaving a pointed tooth therein, the lower surface and point of eachtooth being located substantially in the contacting surface of saidmember, the upper and side surfaces of each tooth being inclined andconverging toward said point, said nozzle contacting the upper surfaceof said strip material and reinforcingly supporting the same with thepoints of said teeth spaced from the reinforcing support.

ROBERT LAY HALLOCK.

